


Our Ghosts of Christmases Past

by cordite



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-07
Updated: 2009-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-01 00:22:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordite/pseuds/cordite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p> The first of the three spirits is the hardest to shake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Ghosts of Christmases Past

**Author's Note:**

> Comments always welcome. Enjoy!

**Title:** Our Ghosts of Christmases Past  
 **Author:** [](http://jubilee-pizza.livejournal.com/profile)[**jubilee_pizza**](http://jubilee-pizza.livejournal.com/)  
 **Rating:** PG for some mentions of violence (One of these days I'll write porn. I promise.)  
 **Parings:** Jack/Ianto, Jack/Alex, Ianto/Lisa  
 **Summary:** The first of the three spirits is the hardest to shake.  
 **Spoilers:** S1, S2  
 **Disclaimer:** Clearly, I don't own anything.  
 **Author's Note:** Comments always welcome. Enjoy!

 

As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow upon the ground.  
  
“Good Heaven!” said Scrooge, clasping his hands together, as he looked about him. “I was bred in this place. I was a boy here!”  
  
\-- Charles Dickens,  
 **A Christmas Carol, Stave II - The First of Three Spirits  
  
**

****

 

The first Christmas present Ianto could remember was a stuffed animal he got when he was three.It was Milou, Tintin’s dog.He loved it until it lost half of its stuffing and one of its shiny plastic eyes.It was the greatest present he’d ever gotten, and nothing could ever beat it.Ever.

 

~~

 

Jack’s first Christmas stuck on Earth was…interesting.He’d been on assignment for Torchwood, chasing down (another) blowfish who seemed to have a penchant for stealing jewels from the homes of the wealthy.Alice and Emily had been very specific about how he was supposed to handle the situation.Not that Jack had ever been one for the rules.A healthy dose of Retcon (which the lovely ladies need not know anything about) and his night would be free for all the Christmas cheer Cardiff had to offer.He’d hoped to get roaring drunk and take home a beautiful boy or girl (or both) to help him celebrate the birth of a lord he didn’t actually believe in.Instead, Jack had found himself the next morning in an alleyway recovering from what felt like a single gunshot wound to the head.So much for Christmas cheer.

 

~~

 

Ianto and his dad didn’t celebrate Christmas the year his mother died.He was sixteen, she was gone too soon, and really what was there to celebrate?The Joneses had always been Christmas and Easter Christians anyway, mostly at Ianto’s mother’s request.It didn’t seem appropriate to rejoice in the birth of a savior who hadn’t bothered to save his mother.

 

~~

 

Christmas with Alex had been a genuinely happy one.Now that wasn’t something he could say about very often.Sure, they were usually fun, and more often than not Jack had someone (or someones) to spend it with.Happy was unusual though, almost uncanny.Happy wasn’t a thing he’d even come close to feeling for almost a century and for it to start now?Something had to be up.They’d gone out to a nice dinner at a posh restaurant (Jack had the veal and Alex had salmon), followed by a long ( _long_ ) night at Alex’s apartment.The next morning…well, the celebrations had continued (and continued and continued).He was loath to admit it, but Jack thought he might just have been falling head over heels.

 

The murder/suicide he had definitely not seen coming.

 

~~

 

Ianto’s first Christmas with Lisa had been a revelation.It was the first since his mother, and he had been wary when she suggested celebrating.He’d come home from the office that evening to find the apartment they shared looking like Father Christmas had exploded in their living room.Paper snowflakes and chains were hung from the crown moulding, garlands were hung around the windows, and fairy lights and mistletoe adorned every doorway.Lisa emerged from the kitchen with a tray full of gingerbread men, an enormous grin on her face.Ianto had been utterly dumbfounded.She’d done all of that just for him.He wanted to laugh, cry, shout; hell he wanted to sing from the rooftops.God, he loved her.If this didn’t beat Milou, it came close.

 

~~

 

Their first Christmas together during the rebuilding of Cardiff had been trying.Ianto had taken care of the arrangements for Tosh’s funeral and Owen’s memorial.It wasn’t Torchwood protocol to mourn the dead, but since when had protocol ever mattered?Jack had let Gwen take charge of the police and fire departments.He knew that if she was given a moment to rest, the full weight of the destruction and loss would break her heart into a million pieces, and he didn’t need any more loss.It was simple that year.There was no money to spend even if spending had seemed the right thing to do.People simply wanted to be with each other, not with material things.Their city was destroyed and their families and friends gone, but there was still hope and love.Jack was older than Christ himself, but for the first time in his long ( _long_ ) life he understood Christmas, and he was glad he had Ianto to share it with.  
  
End.

  
</lj>


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